The First Time: Corey Feldman

Corey Feldman has seen and done it all. A former child star who appeared in more than 100 commercials, Feldman got his big break when he was cast in the mid-1980s hits Stand by Me and Goonies, then became a tabloid staple due to his hard-partying ways and close friendship with fellow child actor Corey Haim. After a few stints on reality television, such as the ill-fated 2007 venture with Haim, The Two Coreys, Feldman has positioned himself as an advocate for child stars past and present, speaking openly about his history of addiction and childhood sexual abuse, which he has suggested is an epidemic in Hollywood (though as Rolling Stone documented in an extensive profile of Feldman, many are skeptical of his claims).

In this installment of The First Time, he recalls being three years old and getting ready to shoot his very first commercial (or “commersh-small,” as he pronounced it) and tells stories from being on set, including his recollection of shooting Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter in 1984, as well as seeing the model for Gizmo from Gremlins with “tubes sticking out of his butt” for the first time. Feldman also reminisces about the first time he met lifelong buddy Corey Haim, right before they shot The Lost Boys together in 1986 (Haim died of pneumonia in 2010) and his memories of fellow child star and Stand by Me costar River Phoenix, who died of an overdose in 1993 at the age of 23. “He was always a great guy. We had so much fun together. There was never a bad moment, never an awkward moment. It was always laughs and fun,” he recalls.

Feldman also talks about his planned comeback as a child star (“I’m going to see if I can play somebody’s kid, like a middle-aged couple,” he jokes) and his encounters with the paranormal. “What do you consider paranormal? I look in the mirror every day,” Feldman says, before adding, in what is perhaps the understatement of the century: “I’ve had a lot of weird stuff happen in my life, let’s leave it at that.”